Monday, July 03, 2006

Authentic Marketing - Robert Middleton

This month I got philosophical and decided to interview myself about"Authentic Marketing." I've noticed over the years that manyprofessional service business owners have real issues with marketing.(They hate it, avoid it, are scared by it, etc.) This "interview"addresses some of those issues.

Q. What is authentic marketing?

R.M. You might think of this as marketing or promotion of one'sbusiness that doesn't come from self-centeredness but from a higherplace, a place of service and contribution. When you are marketingyour business authentically, those who come in contact with yourbusiness are inspired to work with you, they don't feel coerced ormanipulated.

Q. That somehow sounds antithetical to American business. After all,we associate marketing with being less than truthful. I think we'veeven come to take most marketing messages, not just with a grain ofsalt, but with downright suspicion. How is it really possible tomarket authentically?

R.M. Sadly, American business and the advertising industry realizesmost people want fairly superficial things. They realize that peopleact from their own self-interest and therefore prey on motivators suchas beauty, greed, status, and instant fulfillment. But of course, mostproducts and services don't deliver on those promises. A shampooreally isn't going to make you more popular. A new car isn't going tomake you any happier.

Q. So you seem to be proving my point. Where does authenticity fitinto all of this?

R.M. First it comes with the realization that all marketing isn'tabout promotion or advertising. That's really just the tip of theiceberg of marketing. Marketing is really about the completeexperience one has with a company's product or service. So marketingisn't just a slogan or a brochure or an advertisement. It's about howthe company answers its telephones and how they respond to complaintsand how they deal with their customers. And, of course, it's about theactual quality of their product or service.The bottom line of authentic marketing is about truly caring aboutyour customers and clients.

Q. So what does this look like in the marketing of professionalservices? You use your 5 P model of Positioning, Packaging, Promotion,Persuasion and Performance. Is that what it means to marketauthentically?

R.M. Not really, that's just a model for different stages in theservice business marketing process. The 5 Ps are a very useful toolbut you can still use those principles without much caring at all,where the sole purpose is just to make more money. That can be done,but authentic marketing, at its core, is about caring. From that pointyou can start to market from a whole different place.

Q. So what happens after you start caring?

R.M. You'll start to realize that caring doesn't happen in a vacuum.That is, you can't just sit in your office and really care about yourclients and do nothing! Caring requires action and marketing is a verypowerful vehicle for action. You can only make a difference with theservices you provide if people understand what those services are andhow they work. And people will never be able to take advantage ofthose services if they've never heard of you.

Q. So once you've made the commitment to care about your customers orclients, and I assume that would include things like providing highquality services, communicating honestly and responding quickly, youstill have to get the word out.

R.M. Yes, exactly, and this is where people have such a problem. Theycan understand good service, good communication, reliability and allof that -- they see that as being authentic -- but they have a hardtime "getting out there," as you say, getting known, communicatingabout their services to a wider audience, even explaining the value oftheir services. This part of marketing often doesn't feel authentic.

Q. Why is that?

R.M. It's what I call "car sales syndrome." What I've observed inspeaking to thousands of people in workshops and seminars is that whenit comes to marketing and selling, most of us immediately have theimage of someone selling cars - usually used cars! That's what sellingis to us. You know what I mean -- deception, not caring, talkingwithout listening, and outright manipulation. Since that whole realmis so distasteful to us, we don't want to have any part of it. Afterall, we ARE professionals, aren't we? We don't want to stoop that low,and of course, that's very understandable.

Q. That sounds like quite a hurdle to get over. People are happy toprovide great service and in fact do care about their clients but theydon't want to be tarred with the same brush as "car sales." So they dovery little in the area of self-promotion. And if they do, they alwaysfeel a little tainted by it. Is that correct?

R.M. Absolutely. If that's the mindset we're stuck in we'll neverreach the number of clients we could or really make the contribution

we're capable of. In many cases it means we often end up with less-than-ideal projects, doing things we'd prefer not to do instead of thework we really have a passion for. So in trying not to sell out to the"false gods" of marketing and selling, we often end up selling outanyway. I've seen this with hundreds of clients. Their issue isn'talways: "how can I get new clients," but "how can I get the right kindof clients and do the work I was meant to do?"

Q. So how do you help them market themselves authentically?

R.M. It's quite simple really but we make it too complicated. Firstyou commit to caring about your work and your clients above all elseand then you commit to holding true to that attitude of caring inevery aspect of your marketing. You realize that marketing and sellingyour services have nothing to do with selling used cars. You start torealize that authentic marketing is about communication, education andhelping solve problems.

For instance, when you're working on the material for your web site,you need to explain how you help your clients and build a solid casefor your services. There's nothing wrong with building that case fromevery legitimate angle possible -- case studies, testimonials, detailsabout how your service works, etc. You don't have to resort tohyperbole and hucksterism to do that successfully. You have to becompletely honest and demonstrate your caring without saying thingslike "we're a caring company," which no one believes anyway.

Q. This doesn't sound easy to me.

R.M. It's simple, but not necessarily easy. It takes a very high levelof commitment and self-honesty. It takes being vulnerable and open. It takes working atcontinuous improvement. It takes really digging into the actual valueyou provide and finding the best way to present that information. Butthat's what builds trust and relationships.

The companies who get it, and I'm including both small and largebusinesses, turn themselves inside out to communicate to theircustomers with complete integrity. Those kinds of companies buildloyalty that a competitor could never erode with a million dollar adbudget. For instance, I get many referrals from people who have nevereven worked with me. That's because they feel they know me and trustme through my marketing.

Q. Does it take much of a budget to market authentically?

R.M. For a professional service business it can be done with virtuallyno budget at all. Communicating one-to-one with your clients andprospects (what I call keep-in-touch marketing) can be done by e-mailfor virtually free just as I've been doing for over 3 years. It'sreally an authentic one-to-one conversation with those you do businesswith. And that can be done in many, many ways, from giving talks to athousand people to writing an article for a web site to speaking tosomeone at a networking event.

Q. Authentic marketing certainly feels right, but is it reallyprofitable? After all, if you don't make money in your business,you're out of business. All of this sounds somewhat idealistic.

R.M. That's what I used to think as well, but it's really just theopposite. Authentic marketing is about the long-term. It's aboutbuilding loyal clients, not about making a one-time sale.

For example, I have a client that provides supplies to theconstruction industry. I talked to several of her clients to get sometestimonial quotes. It was a wonderful experience speaking to thembecause they were all so thrilled by my client's service andresponsiveness that they wouldn't go anywhere else. Being authenticdoesn't mean being a doormat. Authentic marketers can be veryhard-headed business people. But they tend to attract the right kindof clients so it becomes very profitable for everyone.

Q. So what are the first steps in beginning to market a professionalservice business authentically?

R.M. Just decide to start. You'll see opportunities opening upeverywhere for authentic marketing. Commitment to this isall-important. Without it, you'll be stuck with your outmoded notionsof selling used cars and you'll never take a step.

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About Me

Between Sept 2004 – Feb 2006, Tad dedicated himself to learning his ancestral language, Scottish Gaelic, in both Nova Scotia and Scotland. He can speak Gaelic pretty good now.
He also has a blog called “Healing Whiteness: An Exploration of the European Indigenous Soul” at which is woven around the core question, “Are white people indigenous? If not anymore, can they reclaim that?“
He is a co-founder of the http://novascotiagaelsjam.com/ and co-starred in Canada's second Gaelic language film https://www.facebook.com/fiddlersreel